I enjoyed the new pseudo-open world in Arceus, and it’s apparent that more effort was put into the story and characters. The new combat system and how to catch Pokémon are interesting as well. Overall the game feels like a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately the game is pretty ugly and the zones are sparse. It seems like the game runs better handheld, with more noticeable framerate issues in the dock. The new combat system is interesting but I think the Attack stat was broken. As long as it was a super effective move I was two-shotting pokemon and getting two-shot with a ten level difference. Sometimes it didn’t even have to be super effective. It seems like everyone was able to do more damage than they should have been able to.

As someone who hasn’t played Pokemon since ORAS, if you like Pokemon you’ll probably like Arceus. It just isn’t worth full price.